BRUNEI: A Ray of Sunshine

On a faraway island there lives a young king with so much money that he doesn't know—quite—what to do. He is Omar Ali Saifuddin, 37, the benevolent Sultan of Brunei. A British protectorate, his small realm (2,226 sq.mi.; pop. 41,000) lies on the northwest coast of Borneo, and its money—about $25 million a year—comes mostly from oil. Last summer Omar Ali Saifuddin decreed an ambitious welfare program costing $33 million (TIME, Aug. 31). But there was still a surplus. So the young Sultan cast a philanthropic eye on Malaya, a neighboring, blood-related British protectorate, which was bravely mopping up...